Hola Everyone, We concluded our clinic with the La Balandra Rotary Club of La Paz, BCS on March 22nd. We had fabricated over 20 new prostheses and orthoses, along with repairing several others. All of the prosthetic systems were legs, except for one below elbow prosthesis which was made for a little boy living near Ensenada. Jesus was helping his father clean up their property when he came across an unexploded hand grenade which unfortunately exploded when he first moved it. This caused him to lose his left hand and wrist. He's only about 14 or 15 years old, and as it is, is left handed. We met with Jesus and his family (along with Sarah, a "gringa" who runs an orphanage north of Ensenada) at a local OXXO/Pemex station and took a mold and the necessary measurements. We made his prosthesis at our workshop in La Paz and he will be seen at our Flying Samaritan's clinic at the Los Pinos Ranch near San Quintin. We will be seeing Jesus the second Saturday of April for delivery of his prosthesis on our return trip to the USA.

Dr. Bob Haining ran some numbers on his computer while at the clinic and came up with these stats: during the last 5 clinics we have delivered 100 new prostheses (most all legs) and 40 different types of bracing systems - everything from full leg braces for polio victims to plastic body jackets for kids with scoliosis. These numbers do not include repairs and patch jobs to some of the patients who did not need new sockets, just adjustments to their current legs or braces. The clinic is now in it's ninth year and we don't have the numbers from the earlier clinics, but I think it's safe to say that we have delivered well over 300 prostheses and about 200 bracing systems of different types.

With the downturn in the global economy over the last few years, the La Balandra Rotary Club of La Paz is having increasing difficulty funding it's various humanitarian efforts in BCS, including our clinic. We recycle all of the parts that we use, but certain materials and supplies must be regularly purchased. This costs about $6000 USD each year (we hold 2 week long clinics - 1 in the spring and 1 in the fall). If anyone is able to assist financially, one of our volunteers (Louise Farrow) has set up a "Limb Restoration Fund" at her Methodist Church in Alamo, CA. The address is: